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Tuesday, September 13, 2011

VATICAN CITY, 13 SEP 2011 (VIS) - During the Pope's forthcoming apostolic trip to Germany, the German publisher Herder and the Vatican Publishing House will organise an exhibition of the various language editions of the works of Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI, according to a communique made public today.

"The exhibition is unique of its kind", reads the communique. "It will first be set up at Castelgandolfo for the Holy Father himself, then at the Teutonic Cemetery inside the Vatican, and finally at Herder's head office in Freiburg, and will include some 600 volumes from more than twenty-five countries. For the first time it will be possible to see a Romanian edition of 'Salt of the Earth' alongside a Chinese version of 'God and the World', as well as the great monographs of Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI".

The exhibition will open at the Teutonic Cemetery on 16 September and at Freiburg on 24 September where it will be presented during the course of a press conference organised for the papal visit..../ VIS 20110913 (180)

VATICAN CITY, 13 SEP 2011 (VIS) - The Holy See will once again participate in the celebration of European Heritage Days, an initiative of the Council of Europe in which more than fifty countries on the continent participate. The celebrations this year will take place on Sunday 25 September and have as their theme: "Life beyond Life".

A communique made public today explains that the Pontifical Commission for the Cultural Patrimony of the Church, the Vatican Museums and the Pontifical Commission for Sacred Archaeology are all collaborating in the event.

On 25 September visitors will be able to enter the Vatican Museums free of charge. Entrance to all catacombs in Rome that are normally open to the public (San Callisto, Domitilla, Priscilla, St. Agnes and St. Sebastian) will also be free..../ VIS 20110913 (140)

VATICAN CITY, 13 SEP 2011 (VIS) - Given below are excerpts taken from the article "A woman's intuition" by Lucetta Scaraffia, published recently by "L'Osservatore Romano" to coincide with the Pope's visit to Ancona for the closure of the twenty-fifth Italian National Eucharistic Congress.

"The first Eucharistic congress was held in the French city of Lille in 1881 under the emblematic title of 'The Eucharist saves the world'. That was the starting point for a whole series of national, diocesan and international Eucharistic congresses which have punctuated the history of modern Catholicism, until the most recent in Ancona.

"It is not widely known that the idea to hold these congresses came from a woman, a French woman called Emilie-Marie Tamisier, one of the many lay people to dedicate their lives to the defence of the Church at a time in which anti-Catholic polemics were particularly fierce. Tamisier, who had shown particular devotion to the Eucharist since her earliest childhood, had the idea of organising religious revival activities focused on Eucharistic worship, in an increasingly secularised world.

"The inspiration came to her while attending Mass for the consecration of France to the Sacred Heart in the chapel of the Visitation of Paray-le-Monial, the same place where Marguerite-Marie Alacoque had had the visions which gave rise to modern devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The link between these two forms of devotion is evident: they are both associated with the Body of Christ. ... Both of them present a sacred nucleus towards which we can orient our faith, a clear and universally understandable symbol in a world beset by many distractions, proposals and ideologies which tend to obfuscate the search for truth".

"At Tamisier's own request the first congress was due to be held at Liege in Belgium, the town of Julienne de Cornillon who had promoted the Feast of Corpus Domini, but for political reasons it was decided to hold it in France. Perhaps Tamisier wished to underline, if only implicitly, the fact that the idea for new forms of devotion, new feasts and new ways to encounter Christ had, on three occasions, come from a woman, a woman capable of imagining which model of religious life was most appropriate for rekindling the faith in moments of crisis".

"Tamisier felt that Eucharistic congresses were a modern way to involve a large public, to redirect attention to religious culture and its proposals for solving the problems of the time. The congresses were different from other gatherings in that they concentrated participants' attention not only on speeches and lectures, but above all on the Eucharist, celebrated with particular solemnity and intensity.

"However Tamisier had to work hard before seeing her project fulfilled. At first, in a period lasting some ten years, she limited herself to organising pilgrimages to French shrines that conserved traces of Eucharistic miracles. ... Only later, with the support and advice of certain prelates, did she manage to convince Pope Leo XIII of the importance of her project. She spared no efforts to this end, making journeys, collecting funds and dedicating her entire life to the promotion of what she saw as a new and effective way to draw public attention to the Church. Her efforts were tenacious and successful, but hidden (her name was never officially mentioned) and therefore largely forgotten, as has often been the case of work done by women in the Church".LOR/ VIS 20110913 (580)